Computer breakthroughs promise to revolutionize the oil and gas industry. The upstream oil and gas industry has long advocated and depended upon advanced technologies as a major contributor to its... more

Several R&D organizations have cutting-edge technology that will be commercialized quite soon. Between a glimmer of an idea and a technology we take for granted is what we've dubbed "imminent technology,"... more

A recent forum at Houston's Rice University discussed new technologies and the funding needed to develop them. Attendees of The Rice Alliance "Energy Technology Forum" held on Sept. 12... more

Coiled tubing can play a major role in fracture-stimulating horizontal completions as described in several recent case histories. Several horizontal stimulation treatments were recently performed in an oil field in... more

Previously inaccessible high pressure, high temperature zones can be isolated and successfully treated using coiled tubing-deployed inflatable packers. For years inflatable packers have been used to isolate individual zones... more

Successful geopressure modeling requires integration of data from diverse sources. With shareholders expecting higher profitability, the conventional wisdom in the oil and gas industry has been to cut costs to... more

Once considered marginally feasible, coalbed natural gas projects are benefiting from game-changing technology applications. Not too many years ago, weak prices were driving most everyone out of the coalbed... more

Brazil's largest integrated oil and gas company combines technology with integration into society. Petrobras' green and yellow 'BR' logo is blooming. It can be seen along Brazil's coast and across the... more

Some of the sweet spots on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) have been or are being fully explored, but there are huge amounts of offshore acreage still to be tested... more

Real-time nuclear magnetic resonance logging while drilling (LWD) provides formation fluid type, permeability and bound fluid volume. This producibility information drives steering decisions allowing the wellbore to be drilled to... more

A looped fiber optic Distributed Temperature System (DTS) was pumped down a control tube to a turnaround sub, reversed and pumped back up another control tube to give BP a... more

The oil and gas industry spends millions of dollars a year developing and deploying some of the most advanced technology known to man. However, with such technological armory to hand,... more

NORTH AMERICA Union Drilling, Inc. announced that Christopher D. Strong is their new president. He previously served as chief financial officer of the company. Robert W. Oliver and John B. Bissell,... more

President Olusegun Obasanjo on Nov. 3 announced changes in the management of the oil sector. These came as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which has been locked in a dispute... more

1. Hexadyne Energy Co., Woodlands, Calif., has staked a wildcat well in Solano County in northern California. The company's 6-1 Feather River, in Section 6-6n-2e will target an unnamed gas... more

1. Pioneer Natural Resources discovered gas at its Raptor prospect on the Falcon Corridor in the East Breaks area of the western Gulf of Mexico. The Noble Homer Ferrington semisubmersible... more

1. Shell completed its 219/21-1 Atlantic Margin exploration well on the Benn Nevis prospect with the Jack Bates semisubmersible, which spudded the well on Aug. 26. It completed the hole... more

1. Algerian national oil company Sonatrach says six new discoveries have been made in the first half of the year. The company said it made three of them itself but... more

1. A joint venture called Oleoluz between Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA) and La Universidade del Zulia should end the year with an average 1,800 b/d of oil production from... more

1. Canargo Energy used a farm-in with a Georgian oil and gas company to restart drilling operations at the M11 well in its Manavi project near Tbilisi in the Republic... more

1. A consortium headed by Italy's Edison Gas has selected National Iranian Drilling Co. (NIDC) to drill the first of two exploration wells on the Munir block. The well is... more

1. The Korean National Oil Corporation (KNOC) has shortlisted contractors chasing the US $80-million contract to supply a floating, storage and offloading (FSO) vessel for the Rong Doi and Rong... more

Speculative surveys have been both the best and the worst thing to happen to the seismic industry. But at least one company still likes the business model. In its purest sense,... more

Logging tools using real-time transmission systems are now capable of imaging the wellbore as it is drilled. Although, logging and measurement while drilling (LWD/MWD) tools have been available for many... more

SPE's Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Denver was billed as the "Mile High Meeting of the Minds." In a typical engineering need to be precise, the meeting was convened... more

Studies update the industry's knowledge about deepwater's impact on production operations. As oil and gas activity progressively moves into deeper water, there is an increasing need to understand and quantify ocean... more

A fellow could be blamed for thinking that behind every really good thing in life there's someone or something trying to screw it up. Take fishing for example. In all... more

  A survey of oil industry veterans reveals large differences of opinion on age discrimination. Many people cite age distribution statistics as proof that age discrimination does not exist. "The mean age... more

Billion-barrel fields may lie under the next promising structure. Offshore West Africa offers exploration opportunities unparalleled in the world for those who can stand long delays to production, high entry costs... more

Big fields provide foundation blocks for corporate growth. Angola is the kind of place exploration and production companies dream about. For companies that get in on the play early with the... more

Accurate analysis of deepwater pay zones determines commercial reserves. The estimation of hydrocarbon production potential in thinly laminated reservoirs is critical in today's deepwater plays. In these environments, e.g., Gulf of... more

With C as my best grade in college economics, authoring an economics editorial might not be justified. If you have viewed TV news or read a newspaper lately, C may... more